Personal Improvement

Often when people become interested in personal improvement or self help, they have difficulty coming up with a plan that’s right for them. After all there is so much content on the market, how do you know which products and courses to invest in and how to fit them all together into your own personal development plan?

Here are some simple, effective tips to help you come up with a winning personal development plan that will lead to the fulfillment of all your goals and a higher quality of life in all areas.

First of all, I want to emphasize: Be open to a wide range of material!

Don’t limit yourself to just one niche or author. You’ll derive the most benefit by exposing yourself to numerous perspectives and systems and then making up your own mind on the exact nature of your personal program. Your goal may be to lose weight, but you’ll still benefit immensely from the personal mastery tactics found in many business books. Or you may be looking primarily for marketing advice, but spiritual growth courses will provide you with a ton of applicable wisdom for enhancing your promotions. Keep an open mind and absorb content from a number of quality sources.

And it’s critical that you take your time to honestly evaluate and follow the insights you receive. Don’t dismiss anything as ineffective without putting a serious effort into the application.

With that said, here are your 3 initial steps for building an ideal personal development plan.

Step One: Take A Good Honest Look At Yourself And Your Goals

Before you can make real progress you must fully understand what you have to work with and where you want to go. Be crystal clear not only about your specific goals, but also about the exact nature of your needs, your current strengths and weaknesses, and your actual level of commitment toward change.

Take the time to evaluate yourself, paying special attention to any problem areas where you know improvement is needed. Be as objective as possible and make some notes about your core weaknesses and flaws. Also jot down your main strengths and talents. For best results get feedback from someone else, preferably a person who knows you but isn’t afraid to give you some candid input.

Next spend some time looking at the precise nature of your initial goals. Exactly what is it you want to achieve?

Are there multiple levels and layers to your objectives? Can your main goal be broken down into the ultimate, long-term target and a few mid-range and short term goals? Obviously this can all be changed later once you learn more about effective goal setting, and about what you really want; what matters is that you put a good effort into following through with your concept of personal growth and development.

Step Two: Accept Responsibility And Commit Totally!

Once you know where you are in terms of current capability and condition and you know where you’d like to go, it’s time to step up and take charge. Understand and accept fully that if you are to be successful it’s up to you!

Certainly you’ll need some help along the way, but it’s on you in most cases to ask for it, and to decide which advice to take and which input to leave for someone else. The old saying “If it’s to be it’s up to me” is absolutely accurate!

Furthermore, you must reach deep down within yourself and commit 100% to the fulfillment of your personal development plan. If you commit only partially you will almost certainly fail.

THINK BIG and rise to the occasion by setting aside the time to really charge yourself up over your new direction. Write yourself a few powerful positive affirmations and create one or more motivational rituals to generate the absolute, unwavering confidence you need to say “Yes! I absolutely will do this no matter what the cost and regardless of the obstacles I encounter!”

Lack of proper commitment is one of the biggest reasons for failure in any endeavor. When things begin to get a bit difficult, most folks bail out and fall back on their excuses.

Know for a fact things may get difficult. Understand you’ll probably even fall on your butt once or twice.

It’s quite normal to struggle between the moment you decide on a goal and the moment you celebrate your victory. While true success is often effortless and fluid, it usually takes a few bumps and dings to reach the realization that aligns you with this effortlessness.

As long as you have a strong commitment to keep going no matter what you will reach your finish line. And at that point it’s important to engage the third step in this article…

Step Three: Think Process Rather Than Event

It’s a serious rush when you meet your goal. In fact your body actually releases endorphins to create a sort of “high” whenever you attain something after setting your mind and working hard for it.

However if you don’t have another goal lined up, you may soon find yourself adrift in a strange state of apathy and confusion. This is definitely not what you want to experience after seeing your commitment through to completion. So the real key to a winning personal development plan is to understand that growth and improvement of self is a lifelong process, and not a one-time event!

There will always be new challenges and there is always room for even more improvement!

If this sounds like hard work to you, it’s likely that you’re not cut out for serious personal development. On the other hand, if you get excited about the idea of always learning, growing, and expanding into the next better version of yourself, congratulations!

The truth is, most of us who take our personal development seriously started out with just one or two goals. But once we got really involved we soon found ourselves healthily addicted to the idea of being the best person possible.

Once you start with a well-laid personal development plan you’ll probably never want to stop. You’ll come up with new objectives and new strategies and you’ll spend your days setting a positive example for the young people who follow behind you.

This article is of course only one perspective on how to formulate a positive, effective formula for lasting personal development. I hope you’ll give this insight a try in your own life and let me know how it works for you, but always remember to add your own dose of creativity to whatever you’re doing.

I personally enjoy mixing and matching tactics from various experts and then throwing one or more of my own ideas into the mix. It’s a lot of fun and it allows me try a full range of concepts until I nail the perfect solution to a given challenge.

For a variety of reasons it’s difficult for most people to imagine themselves enjoying spectacular success. The majority of individuals tend to assume that amazing stories of personal success are reserved for other people.

This is pretty bizarre and unreasonable when you think about it. We’re all “other people” from someone’s perspective, right?

A great technique for shifting your perspective is to put yourself in the center of your favorite success stories. Imagine how it would feel to make your first million dollars, win a bodybuilding competition, become a best-selling author, or attain whatever victory meets your ideal of true success.

The reality is you are every bit as capable of great success as any other person on the planet. You might need additional training, education, or experience to get from where you are now to where you’d rather be, but these are all things you can acquire with a small amount of time and commitment.

In my late teens and early twenties I had the privilege of training with a world-class martial arts master; the assistant instructor was also a national champion. Everything about the school and the system vibrated excellence. Both of my instructors had a saying for putting their incredible talents into perspective: “I’ve got two arms and two legs just like you.”

The implication is pretty simple. It’s much like the old cliché that even our heroes “put their pants on one leg at a time”. Individuals who exhibit extraordinary success in any field are human beings; they don’t have any magical powers and they’re not blessed with supernatural abilities.

It’s important to recognize and accept this fact. Resist the urge to make excuses and point out how the successful people you read about all have some kind of unfair advantage over you; i.e. better genetics, a wealthy family, a better childhood, or whatever.

The time-honored tradition of defending mediocrity with excuses about such advantages goes back at least to ancient Greece. In those days the heroes from the culture’s favorite stories were all the children of Zeus or some other deity, the idea being that no mere mortals could be capable of such bravery and skill.

Modern-day excuses are less elaborate but every bit as far-fetched.

While some athletes may be blessed with genetic talents, disciplined training will always overcome natural ability. Many champion competitors, including the great Michael Jordan, were not gifted at an early age with their winning capabilities.

And the overwhelming majority of wealthy entrepreneurs do not come from old money, or wealthy families. Far and away more business superstars come from middle class and even poor homes.

When you open your eyes and take an honest look at the folks who are living the success you crave you’ll find they are very much like you. By this token there is absolutely no good reason whatsoever to deny yourself the thrill and triumph of excelling in your chosen field.

If you were handed a million dollars, how would you live the next year? After you bought a new car, maybe a big house, gave some money to charity, and so forth, how would you spend your time if money were no object and you had complete freedom to do what you want?

Would you quit your job?

Would you move to another state?

If you had no need to work for a living and could do whatever you like with your days, how would you plan and use your time? This is really important, so please take a few minutes to be honest with yourself.

If you still find yourself crunching the numbers, wondering if a million would really set you free, make it ten million. The point of this exercises is: What would your life look like in terms of your regular activity, lifestyle, and commitments if were 100% free from any financial or work-related stress?

Create a detailed vision that reflects your answer. Ideally you’ll write this down.

And once you know what you would do if time and money were not pressing concerns, you’ll need to answer my next question:

Why aren’t you already doing all the things you want to do right now?

Understandably you might not immediately be able to invest in your $300,000 dream car. But remember, this million dollar question is really about your daily work, activities, and lifestyle.

So if your first answer was “I’d quit my job”, I think it’s only right to ask yourself why you’re keeping a job you obviously don’t like.

Especially in the U.S., and from what I can tell in many other places as well, people suffer their entire lives under the burden of obligation. They work a crappy job they hate because they need money to live on, or they get married because their parents tell them it’s sinful to have a mate who isn’t under contract.

It’s both amazing and sad what people are willing to put themselves through in the name of obligation. According to Dr. Nick Hall, an alarming number of med students openly admit during their final years of training that they have little or no desire to be doctors; they are committing their entire lives to a career their parents wanted for them!

The same kind of perverse nonsense can be seen in most military academies or basic training depots. Many people join the armed forces because their fathers and grandfathers served, and they have been pressured since childhood to do the same.

On a less dramatic scale, how many people do you know who have told you hundreds of times how badly they hate their jobs, and yet they keep going back! Maybe you’re in a similar situation yourself.

Think about how crazy this is.

There is tremendous social pressure to think and act in a manner consistent with some vague idea of what it means to be a “good citizen”. As a result, millions (billions?) of people are going through the motions of life, dead in every sense  of the word long before their heart stops beating.

Look again at the things you said you’d do with a million dollars. Compare this to your current life and demand of yourself a good answer for why you should keep leading a life that’s not what you want.

As I’ve said many times before, heaven and reincarnation are both fine ideas but there is no proof of either. This could be your only shot at being you, so I urge you strongly to make the most of the experience!

People make such a big, dramatic deal of small decisions like leaving a job or ending an unhappy marriage. Honestly if someone is that determined to suffer I guess they’re entitled to their misery.

But because most people actively complain about the negative circumstances in their life I am compelled as a writer to continuously make these simple points:

1. Life is about being happy right now. Waiting to have a fulfilling life is ludicrous and depraved.
2. You should be living from your true values, and not by principles that please other people.
3. Finding your life’s purpose is mission critical #1. From their it’s all fun and games!

To be fair, I realize many of my readers are already living on purpose and doing exactly what they want. So please don’t take this post as condescending in any way.

I believe most of us, even when we are living our bliss, can benefit from the “million dollar question” exercise. I play a variation of this little game with myself often just to be sure I’m on track.

The version I use is called the “magic wand game”. I ask myself: if I could wave a magic wand over every area of my life and have things exactly as I want them, what would the results look like?

This helps me be certain I’m not settling for “reasonable” or “realistic”, and that I’m indeed pursuing my heart’s inspiration. I hope this concept resonates strongly with you, and that you’ll find ways to enhance your life using questions and games of this nature.